


Funerals

by Ryface



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Spot the cameo, Tissue Warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2012-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-19 21:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryface/pseuds/Ryface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's still so mad, so mad it physically pains him when he thinks about everything that had happened. From Artemis going on the mission, to every stupid argument he'd had with Dick after, to Dick telling him that if he had a problem, maybe he should suit up and join the team again, or just shut the hell up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Funerals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emileesaurus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emileesaurus/gifts).



> One day, she'll learn not to ask for horrendously depressing things.

Wally throws away the funeral announcements.  
  
He's still so mad, so mad it physically _pains_  him when he thinks about everything that had happened. From Artemis going on the mission, to every stupid argument he'd had with Dick after, to Dick telling him that if he had a problem, maybe he should suit up and join the team again, or just shut the hell up.  
  
And he was mad at himself that he hadn't. Maybe, if he'd been there-- Maybe he could've been fast enough again. Maybe he could've stopped it, rescued him--  
  
  
Artemis moves out a week after she returned from the mission. She says she still loves him, that she just needs some time and space to recover from everything that happened, but he knows. He knows, as he watches her haul her suitcase out the door, coaxing their dog out the door with him and leaving their apartment too quiet, that she's not coming back.  
  
He's mad about that, too, but he can't direct his anger about it at anyone but a dead man now, and that doesn't help. So instead he punches the wall.  
  
He doesn't care that he leaves a hole in the drywall. Doesn't care that his landlord is going to hike up his rent and keep his deposit (it had been a gift from Dick, as was the Wayne Foundation scholarship paying for his rent and his food and his classes). Doesn't care that his knuckles are bruised and bleeding.  
  
He punches the wall again and hears something crack. It's likely he's fractured something but he still doesn't care. His fist is still pressed into the wall, and he sags against it. He looks down and watches a tiny bead of blood slide half an inch down his hand before thinning too much to drip, and suddenly all of his burning, painful anger melts away. He slides to the floor, tears in too steady of a stream _not_ to drip.  
  
  
He attends the funerals with two fingers in a splint. Funeral _s_ , plural, as someone with a double life called for double greiving.  
  
The first is for the fictionalized death of Richard Grayson, adopted son of Bruce Wayne, who tragically perished in a plane crash. He stands, several yards away from the circus of photographers and reporters, snapping pictures and demanding comments from Bruce and Tim. A tabloid "journalist" makes a rude comment about Bruce's sons dying in horrible accidents, and another reporter, dark haired and suddenly infuriated, punches him in the mouth, her notebook never leaving her fist.  
  
Wally smiles, but only barely. It's still the first smile he's had in weeks.

 

The second, and more honest, funeral is for Nightwing. He doesn't wear his Kid Flash costume and that makes him stick out like a sore thumb in the crowd of brightly colored spandex that would seem inappropriate for any other funeral. Batman and Robin and Superman and Zatanna all give short, powerful speeches. Barry had encouraged Wally to say something as well, but he can't think of anything to say. So he stays on the sidelines again. He sees Artemis, standing on the other side of the crowd with Roy, holding her niece bundled in her arms. He's sure she saw him, but he leaves in a hurry before she can find him.  
  
  
A week later, he hacks a zeta tube, his hands shaking as he uses an old trick Dick had taught him when they were reckless teenagers, and he gives himself access to the Watchtower. He knows, from too many failed attempts of his and Robin's to sneak up on M'gann for whatever prank they were pulling that day, that Martian Manhunter will know he's there. But he sneaks anyway, zipping down a corridor to a renovated room that had replaced the Cave's memorial grotto. He stares at the smirking hologram of his best friend for what feels like hours.  
  
"I'm sorry," he says, finally.


End file.
